Fresh fig, dark chocolate & olive oil cake

At Cibo & Vino, I believe every ingredient has something to offer. Sometimes, all it takes is a little time, care and creativity to reveal its full potential.

Recently, I brought home a basket of beautiful store-bought figs. They looked perfect but had been picked a little too early, lacking the rich sweetness we often associate with fresh figs. Rather than seeing that as a disappointment, I saw it as an invitation to bake. A little heat, a knob of butter, a drizzle of sweetness and a touch of flaky sea salt transformed them into something wonderfully rich and full of flavour.

I love recipes like this because they remind me to cook with the ingredients I have, not the ones I wish I had. This cake is the result of one of those moments in the Cibo & Vino kitchen.

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Fresh fig, dark chocolate & olive oil cake

Mediterranean inspired soft cake using up unripe figs as well as older dark chocolate

Course Dessert

Cuisine Mediterranean

Keyword cake, dark chocolate, figs

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 15 minutes minutes

Servings 1 cake

Author Antonetta Santagata

Equipment

• 1 Hand Mixer
• 1 spring cake form

Ingredients

For the figs

• 8–10 fresh figs halved
• 1 tbsp runny honey
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp butter
• 1 pinch flaky sea salt
• drops lemon juice

For the cake

• 180 g plain flour
• 50 g whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 pinch sea salt
• 3 eggs
• 140 g caster sugar
• 120 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 120 g Greek natural non-sugared yoghurt
• 1 zest lemon
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 100 g 70% dark chocolate can be more than 70%, roughly chopped

Instructions

Caramelise the figs

• Heat a frying pan over medium heat
• Add the butter, the honey and the brown sugar
• When bubbling, place the figs cut-side down. Cook for 2–3 minutes until lightly caramelised. The figs should still hold their shape.
  
• Turn them over for about 30 seconds, then add a few drops of lemon juice and a pinch of flaky salt
• Remove from the heat immediately and allow the figs to cool completely

Make the batter

• Whisk together the eggs and sugar for 3-4 minutes until the mixture is pale
• Slowly whisk in the olive oil, the yoghurt, the vanilla and the lemon zest
• Fold in both flours, the baking powder and the pinch of salt
• Finally fold through the chopped chocolate

Assemble and bake

• Pour the batter into a lined 22 cm springform tin
• Arrange the caramelised figs on top, cut side up, gently pressing them only slightly into the batter
• Spoon any remaining honey from the pan over the figs
• Bake at 175°C (fan 160°C) for 40 minutes, until a skewer comes out with a few moist crumbs (melted chocolate is fine)